PROVO, Utah — BYU welcomes Utah Tech to Provo for a single game at Gail Miller Field on Tuesday at 5 p.m MDT.
The Cougars and Trailblazers will face off for the second time in the last week after playing down in St. George last Tuesday.
BYU beat Utah Tech in five innings a week ago, plating nine runs in a game that saw two brief rain delays. Lily Owens and Hailey Morrow both homered in the contest as the Cougars tallied 10 hits on the afternoon.
Also earning its first Big 12 series win in program history last week, BYU took its three-game series with Houston, 2-1. After run-ruling Houston on Thursday, BYU dropped game two of the set and game one of a Friday doubleheader, 9-6.
The Cougars faced an 8-0 deficit after the top of the first inning in the series finale and game two of the doubleheader before rallying to take a lead before eventually tying the game once more to force extra innings.
As the game went into the bottom of the ninth and approached four hours in duration, BYU loaded the bases with just one out, making way for Huntyr Ava, who slapped a 2-0 pitch past the left field wall, for a line drive, walk-off grand slam.
The four-bagger marked the Cougars’ seventh grand slam of the season and fourth of Ava’s career. It was BYU’s ninth game this season scoring 10+ runs, and eighth multi-home run game in 2024.
Ava led the Cougars with an .800 batting average on the week, including a blistering .833 during the Houston series. She was joined by seven other BYU batters who hit .300+ on the week: Ailana Agbayani (.538), Maddie Udall (.455), Morrow (.400), Macy Simmons (.400), Violet Zavodnik (.385), Aleia Agbayani (.333) and Owens (.308).
The strong hitting week upped BYU’s season batting average to .334, which ranks No. 12 in the nation and third in the Big 12. Averaging 6.97 runs per game, the Cougars also rank 12th in scoring and 14th in on-base percentage, at .423.
At an individual level, Maddie Bejarano remains the country’s leader in sacrifice bunts, with 0.42 per game. Ava is No. 6 in RBI per game (1.36) and No. 7 in total RBI (45), while Ailana Agbayani ranks No. 8 in runs per game, with 1.27.
After playing the sixth game in the all-time series in St. George a week ago, the Cougars get set for their fourth matchup against the Trailblazers in Provo this week.
Utah Tech (11-21, 4-5 WAC)
- The Trailblazers are on a five-game losing streak after dropping their Western Athletic Conference series to Grand Canyon at home
- BYU leads the all-time series between the two teams, 7-0, after winning last week’s matchup, 9-1.
- The Cougars are 3-0 against the Trailblazers in Provo. BYU head coach Gordon Eakin is also 7-0 against Utah Tech overall and 3-0 at home.
BYU will resume Big 12 play after its midweek game, heading east for a three-game series at UCF, Thursday-Saturday, April 4-6.